"What's the purpose of making it look old if cameras were invented right
before Beethoven died?"
I believe that is just a slightly closed iris effect that many silent film people liked to do. Or at least that is what it seems. It's hard to tell with orthocromatic film.

LOL @ "Al's side project" ... I know you were kidding, but there's no such thing as a Weird Al side project. anything he is on would be just Weird Al. If they had invited him to sing on We Are The World, they would have had to call it "Weird Al For Africa."